Monica Review

Some stories do intrigue us and if the stories are adapted from one of the real actions happening around us, the curiosity to watch such a film increases manifolds. What if the narrative of the movie talks about the relationship of a chief Minster of a northern state and a journalist? Yes; the expectation from such a story to be seen as a real adaptation on screen increases.

So, here comes Monica, the first movie to release after so many weeks. Monica is just not about a journalist it' s also about her courage to stand as a wife to an alcoholic husband, mother, and ambitious women. It' s a movie about a journalist playing many roles at a time and her courage to go for it in adverse conditions.

Final Word? Is Monica worth a dekho? Yes; it is given you have a field day as there is no hype on the movie. If you like watching cinema with substance, Monica could be your choice this weekend.

Let' s see the basic story of the movie in the pivotal words of Mr. Taran Adarsh, a noted film-critic who seems to have liked the movie.

"Monica depicts the transformation of a small-town school girl, a victim of child abuse while watching a movie [QAYAMAT SE QAYAMAT TAK] at a theatre in Lucknow, to a thick-skinned media person, who has no qualms of sleeping with a powerful politician as also a lady industrialist to achieve her goals. The various episodes in her stormy life have been told in a rather unusual manner by director Sushen Bhatnagar. Of course, a few vital chunks are missing, but the narrative keeps you hooked for most parts."

"Lucknow - the city where she lived and returned to die. Very early in her life, Monica [Divya Dutta] had learnt that there are only two categories of people: the exploiter and the exploited. But Monica was not ready to toe the line. She was prepared to barter. She married Raj Jaitley [Rajit Kapoor] for love. She cajoled Aseem Ray [Tinnu Anand] for position. She seduced Pamela Garewal [Kittu Gidwani] for power. She surrendered to Chandrakant Pandit [Ashutosh Rana] for all this and more. But did Monica get what she deserved?"

It seems like a captivating story, what say guys?

Director Sushen Bhatnagar handles the sequence well and does not follow the conventional path of telling a story. Well done!

From performance point of view, Ashutosh Rana as the politician is superb. Divya Dutta delivers her most powerful act ever. Of course, when you cast great character artists like Ashutosh Rana and Divya Dutta, the expectation normally rises up. But, having said that, still there is a feeling that both fine artists like Ashutosh and Divya have not been used up to their fullest potentials in the industry and that' s sad.

Over all, it' s a good movie released positioned wrong (World Cup Days) but has its heart in the right place. The movie has the power to hold on its own but again the word of mouth publicity would come in to the picture as the flick carries zero hype.

From the box-office point of view, the movie shall find some patrons here and there but overall the movie shall go down unnoticed as cricket world cup fever has just started to reach its zenith with India reaching the semi-final and registering a win over Australia to fix a summit clash with Pakistan on 30th. A non-starter, the movie shall be!!

Rating - **1/2 (Wrong Positioned Product)

Verdict - It' s a good product positioned wrong!

Movie Reviewed By - Md. Waliur Rahman

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